Episode 830: The Longest Listener Email Show
Date March 2, 2016 Summary Ben and Sam play a quick player guessing game, banter about pitching-coach projects and Coors Field fences, and answer listener emails about the Cubs and personal catchers, irrational fan beliefs, Mike Trout, and more. Topics * Personal catchers * Translating fielding skills from overseas * Great players irrationally hated by fans * Hitting to the opposite field * Undiscovered All-Star talent * Mike Trout and value of MLB experience Intro Liam Finn and Eliza-Jane Barnes, "Long Way to Go" Outro The Rolling Stones, "Long Long While" Episode outtake sound clip Banter * Episode 808 follow-up: Sam reads a BP Annual player comment and makes Ben guess the player. Ben correctly guesses Clay Buchholz. * Guess the career earnings: Ben guesses Clay Buchholz's career earnings are $39 million. Sam gueses $19.6 million. Buchholz had earned $30.5 million to date. * Impact of Ray Searage on Ryan Vogelsong and Juan Nicasio * The Rockies are raising the fences in right Coors Field by 8 feet. Email Questions * John: "I have Kyle Schwarber on my dynasty and I'm a Cubs fan so this Yahoo! blurb caught my eye. Mark Gonzalez of the Chicago Tribune writes that 'there's some talk of Kyle Schwarber being Kyle Hendricks' personal catcher. Having Schwarber behind the dish for Hendricks' starts will allow the young slugger to keep his catching skills sharp while also paving the way for more playing time in left field for Jorge Soler'. However Gonzalez notes that manager Joe Maddon hasn't committed to having Schwarber catch Hendricks exclusively because he wants Miguel Montero to stay sharp. Montero already sits out Jon Lester's starts as David Ross is the southpaws personal catcher. Does still having David Ross, who had a 44 OPS+ in 2015, serve as Lester's personal catcher make any baseball sense whatsoever? The Cubs have more hitters than they can get in the lineup and they're give at-bats to Ross every turn through the rotation. David Ross has played 14 season with a total of 8.3 WAR. I love David Ross and think he's awesome as team dad even if it costs a roster spot, but why would a team give him 30+ starts?" * Jordan: "Whenever a team signs a foreign hitter or pitcher we debate how he will fare against MLB talent. However I imagine that a player's fielding ability would translate very well since fielding is not really affected by an opponent's skills. Is my assumption here true, and do you think that teams will eventually pay top dollar for an Ozzie Smith-like talent from overseas?" * Dan: "I stumbled upon a great tweet this afternoon from someone named @CespedesMVP that read "Duda costed the Mets 10-15 games this year in the first half when the pitchers were pitching games and Duda was supposed to produce." Not only does this fit into the category of totally misunderstanding how to value players, it speaks to the general hatred Mets fans have for Lucas Duda despite the fact that he has a case to be one of the top-10 first basemen in baseball. With that said, what player do you think receives the most irrational hate from their fanbase? Maybe the answer is Duda as Ken Davidoff recently wrote an article entitled, "Lucas Duda, 'Why Do Mets Fans Hate Me?" My favorite Duda rationalization for his lack of fan love "maybe I've got a weird face". * Stuart: "Does the concept of the Ken Phelps All-Star still exist or is there some idea that front offices have enough numbers to judge players so efficiently these days that there aren't any overturned rocks with that previously unnoticed upside left? About 10 years ago it still seemed like you could look at the International League leaderboard and see a player like Marco Scutaro and confidently say, 'I bet if somebody like Billy Beane snaps him up he'll be a pretty good player.' Do you guys think this is true with a guy like Matt Hague today or are they now seen as AAAA guys who live on the back end of rosters?" * Eric: "How well would Mike Trout hit if he had not yet played in the majors? That is to say, he'd have been the same generational talent for the last four years but he did it all in AAA." Play Index * Sam uses the Play Index to see if Derek Jeter was actually good at going the other way. * He generates a list of 299 players who were right handed and had at least 362 plate appearances. Sorts by OPS. * Derek Jeter is the third best hitter with a .443 average (1.120 OPS) on balls hit to the opposite field during his career. * Julio Franco hit .479 on balls to the opposite field during his career. * Chris Young was the worst with a .356 OPS on balls in play to the opposite field. Notes * Ben thinks he could name 20 of the 30 MLB pitching coaches off the top of his head. * Sam thinks that the type of relationship between a personal catcher and pitcher could be established with the right conditions and effort between all catchers and pitchers on a team. * There are different infield compositions between MLB fields and those in Japan or Korea. Japanese and Korean fields are more often turf instead of grass and have less dirt. * Joey Votto and Joe Mauer are the two players Ben and Sam first think of when discussing talented players who are irrationally hated by fan bases. * Neither Ben nor Sam think Mike Trout would be significantly diminished in hitting talent if he had been playing in AAA instead of MLB the past few seasons. * The Sonoma Stompers are looking for interns for the upcoming season. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 830: The Longest Listener Email Show Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes